Friday, 28 October 2011

BARNSTORMING.

Chocks away, look what I managed to get my grubby paws on. NO I didn't find this on the Kingsland Road, I sourced this for a top secret commission.

9 barrels, and 75 years of dirt, not the easiest thing I have ever taken apart but very interesting. Unfortunately she won't fit in my shot-blaster.

This VERY HEAVY lump of nuts and bolts is actually a 1936 Lycoming R-680 Radial Aircraft Engine and would have come out of plane like this.

The Lycoming Manufacturing Company, now known as Lycoming Engines, built the motor. A R-680 successful trial came just two years after Charles Lindbergh flew his "Spirit of St. Louis" nonstop from New York to Paris marking the "golden age of aviation" and introduced Lycoming as the world's foremost piston aircraft engine manufacturer. Over the next twenty years, Lycoming built over 25,000 R-680 radial engines and established a worldwide reputation for excellence that has thrived ever since.

Now all I have to do is clean it, polish it and upcycle it to its new purpose....

2012 Homes & Gardens Designer Awards - Eco Designer

About Me

The rag and bone man is the maker and purveyor of bespoke unconventional metal furnishings. Transforming junk collected around the East End of London on a vintage trade bike and recycling it into new and industrial lighting designs. His work is inspired largely by Art deco and the machine age. Each light is unique, fabricated using a wide variety of skills including welding, brazing, polishing, lacquering and various patinas. His philosophy is to keep working with the parts he has or source what is needed allowing the materials to dictate the development of new assemblages.

Many of the lamps feature vintage motor bike parts that are not damaged in the process of making the lamps [unless they were in a very bad way before] and are therefore restored and preserved for unborn generations to enjoy as future vintage lamps or returned to their original purpose if needed.

The rag and bone man knows that useless bits of junk are worth something to the right person, even useless parts have a place.